t?"

"Of course we can, Miss Pederstone! I am glad you put it so plainly.
Now, if you had been in my shoes,--would you have come?"

"Oh, please don't put it that way. We have gone through too much for
that. We know too much of each other for argument."

"You mean, you know too much about me," corrected Phil, a little
bitterly.

"Yes!--and, believe me or not as you will, I never thought, I never
guessed--until--until I saw you that afternoon in the smithy,
tired-out, begrimed, your hair awry and your clothes loose about
you--I never dreamed that you--that you--that----"

"That I was the escaped convict you befriended!"

Eileen put her hand on his arm.

"Mr. Ralston,--why do you have to be so callous; why are you so severe
with yourself?"

There was a touch of irony in the short laugh Phil gave.

"One can't afford to be otherwise with one's self," he retorted. "It
is a privilege one is permitted to take."

"It is a privilege you have no right to take and--and I am so sorry if
I hurt your feelings that afternoon. I did not think for a second how
you might misconstrue my behaviour, although--although I could see it
all afterwards. Won't you please understand me? I was so surprised, so
taken aback,--the picture returned to me so suddenly--that I could not
think properly. I just had to run out into the open and away, in order
to pull myself together."

Phil walked along by her side, up the hill, without answering.

"Won't you believe me?" she pleaded.

"I can never forget that you were kind to me when I needed it most."

"Then you believe me," she reiterated, "and you will believe that I
shall never, never, never tell anyone your secret?"

The moon sailed out behind the clouds, and Phil looked down and saw a
pale, earnest face searching his.

"Yes!--I do believe you," he answered. "I could not do anything else
now."

"Thanks ever so much!" Eileen smiled.

And with that smile, the ache that had been at Phil's heart for some
days took wings and flew away to the Land of Delusion from whence it
came.

"May I ask just one little question before we bury that small bit of
the past?" Eileen asked.

"Yes!--what is it?"

"Does anyone else up here know that you are the same person who--who
was recaptured that night?"

"Yes!--one other knows."

"Jim Langford?"

"No, not Jim--although I think I may have to tell him some day. It is
awkward at times."

"Your secret would be safe with him."

"I know it wo